Peni Parker

About

Peni Parker is a Marvel Comics superhero character featured in the alternate universe of Spider-Man. Inspired by the Japanese Mecha genre, especially Neon Genesis Evangelion, the character saw renewed interest when she appeared in the trailer for the upcoming animated film Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse. due to the generally cute appearance given to her as seen in the trailer.

History

Comics

Peni made her debut in Edge of Spider-Verse #5, released on October 15th, 2014, with writing done by Gerard Way of rock band My Chemical Romance. In the comic, Peni is the half-Asian teenage pilot of the SP//dr suit, a large mecha suit powered by a radioactive spider which becomes mentally linked with the pilot when bitten. She takes on the role after her father, the previous pilot of the SP//dr suit, was killed.

Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse

On October 2nd, 2018, the second official trailer for the film Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse was released. A crossover featuring a number of alternate universe Spider-Men heroes, such as Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, and Spider-Ham, the trailer also revealed that Peni would also be featured in the film, voiced by Kimiko Glenn of Orange is the New Black.

Reception

ComicsAlliance^[1] called Edge of Spider-Verse #5 "pretty rad," and said of Peni that she fit well into the Spider-Man template. IGN^[2] wrote of Peni, "It’s Peni, and to a lesser extent SP//dr, who proves the draw, the heroine’s beyond-her-years wisdom buoyed by her own search for self."

Online Relevance

Online, Peni Parker has pages devoted to her on the Marvel Wiki.^[3] Interest in the character surged after her debut in the Into the Spider-Verse trailer. Nerdgasm made a video talking about the character's origins (shown below, left), as did KeyIssues (shown below, right).

Fan Art

The debut of the character also led to Rule 34 of Peni Parker. The prevalence led to a post in /r/Spiderman about the Rule 34 fan art that gained over 78 points.^[4]

Search Interest

External References